Tragic Doncaster tot died just five weeks after operation

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A devastated Doncaster mum and dad heard their young son died after doctors failed to find a stomach ulcer.

Corey Jake Needham died aged 19 months old, five weeks after having the latest of four operations at Leeds Children’s Hospital for a range of stomach problems.

But an inquest heard doctors had not diagnosed a stomach ulcer - from which the little boy bled to death.

Corey’s mum Kady Lorrell Natasha Johnson, of Aldesworth Road, Cantley, said on April 16 he started to become unwell with a cough and bowel problems. He was taken to hospital on April 19 where a consultant examined him.

An X-ray showed improvement in his swollen stomach, blood tests were normal and there was nothing to suggest diagnosis of a gastric ulcer.

Recording a narrative conclusion at the inquest, deputy coroner Fred Curtis said: “Corey Jake Needham died on April 24, 2012, soon after suffering a gastrointestinal haemorrhage from a gastric ulcer.

“He had undergone major surgery five weeks prior to his death and, although unwell in the week before his death, the presence of an ulcer had not been considered on the evidence then available. The only means of establishing the existence of the ulcer, namely an endoscopy, was not utilised, as the threshold for this process had not been reached.

“Corey was on the verge of securing a quality of life, and his demise was an unexpected and traumatic blow to all who knew him and who treated him.”